From prescriptions to prayer

Sister André Marie Vuong stepped away from a successful career as a pharmacist after a life-changing encounter with the Blessed Sacrament. She took her final vows as a cloistered nun in June.

By Christina Gray

Sister André Marie of Divine Mercy professed her solemn vows as a Dominican nun at Corpus Christi Monastery this summer on June 29. Like a bride in anticipation of her wedding day, she was fitted for her ring and measured for the new habit she will wear after nearly 10 years of discernment.

The Gothic-style monastery in Menlo Park is where she and more than a dozen other contemplative Dominican nuns live a communal, cloistered life of prayer, praise and sacrifice. The 100-year-old structure, its peaceful grounds and its purpose stand as an enduring counterpoint to the worldly pursuits of the burgeoning tech world less than a mile away.

“I had never considered religious life,” said Sister André Marie. “And I was not someone who others could see joining a religious order, either.”

Stirred by the Eucharist

Sister André Marie Vuong was born in South Vietnam, the oldest of three children. Her family was one of the final wave of refugees who escaped Communist rule by boat after the fall of Saigon in 1975. They settled in San Jose where the children were educated and raised Catholic.

After completing her studies, she established herself in a successful career as a pharmacist and enjoyed all the “good things” that seemed to go with it: designer clothing and makeup, an active social life with friends and family, world travel and a diamond engagement ring.

As far as her faith, she practiced its obligations, she said, but did not go much beyond Sunday Mass or occasional adoration.

One weekend, her parents asked her to come with them to a Catholic charismatic conference in Oakland and she agreed.

Sister André Marie said she was completely unprepared for her experience in adoration at the conference.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about those moments before the Blessed Sacrament,” she said. The peace and joy she had felt convinced her to attend Mass more often, then daily.

“Sometimes I even stayed for the second Mass,” she said. She spent her time in prayer and signed up for pilgrimages and retreats.

But at the same time, she was engaged.

Her fiancé, who was not Catholic, could not understand her sudden religious turn, she said, and she admits to a period of “inner struggle.”

“I did question why the Lord would stir me in this way when I was about to be married,” she said.

Ultimately, Sister André Marie said, the engagement was called off, but not so she could join religious life.

It was providential, she said. “I didn’t have that sense of peace and joy when I was engaged because that was not my vocation.”

A deeper longing

Sister André Marie said that for a period of a year or so, she continued to work as a pharmacist and travel as she had before, while simultaneously conducting research on religious vocations.

“I’d come back from trips and think, well, that was wonderful, but now what?,” she said. Material things did not satisfy her in the way they once had.

“There was a deeper longing within me that I could get a tiny glimpse of before the Lord,” she said.

Eventually, she learned about Corpus Christi Monastery in Menlo Park through the Institute of Religious Life and contacted the vocations director.

In 1921, a small group of Dominican nuns settled at Corpus Christi Monastery, establishing the cloistered life of prayer centered on the Eucharist that continues today.

Sister André Marie’s initial “aspirancy” included a one-month, live-in experience for “mutual discernment” within the community.

“I came into the cloister for 30 days to live with the community and see the way they live and to discern whether this is the way of life God is calling me to,” she said.

The rhythm of each day for the enclosed community at Corpus Christi Monastery follows a prescribed schedule of prayer, worship, study, work, meals, silence, recreation and adoration. The latter is what Sister André Marie found most compelling. There is a sister in prayer before the Eucharist all day.

“I felt such a sense of joy and peace in the sacred silence of adoration,” she said.

It’s in this silence, she said, that “God lets us know we are so precious in His eyes, looks at us with so much love, each and every one of us. Sometimes we forget that we are very loved by God no matter the state of our life.”

Mixed reaction from family and friends

Following another year of at-home discernment, Sister André Marie entered Corpus Christi Monastery as a postulant. The reaction from family and friends was mixed.

“My mom had always said it would be so great if one of her children would join religious life,” she said. But when she first told her, she wondered why her daughter didn’t want to join an active order.

“But prayer is active,” said Sister André Marie. Her parents have supported their daughter’s vocation, she said.

Some of her friends, on the other hand, were shocked. Even three years later, after her first vows, she recalled a friend who was “happy for me,” but still in disbelief.

“I cannot believe this is you,” she told her. “But you do look so happy.”

‘Try holding the rosary,’ not your phone

Sister André Marie requested and received, with approval from the prioress, the name she will bear for the rest of her consecrated life. It is the result of a trip to Montreal, Canada, with her family and spiritual director.

Her spiritual director had a “great devotion to St. Joseph,” she said. In the choir stall of St. Joseph Oratory, they both prayed that her vocation would be “pleasing to God.”

Sister André Marie’s name refers to St. André Bessette, a lay brother of the Congregation of the Holy Cross credited with thousands of reported healings associated with his devotion to St. Joseph.

Until she took her solemn vows, Sister André Marie was still considered “in formation” among the 16 nuns of the community ranging in age from 24 to 89. She had her studies, and took her turn in the kitchen and in the altar breads department, which supplies altar breads to priests and parishes, campus ministries and retreat centers.

She has had the opportunity to utilize her natural creativity in the development office. Using computer graphic design programs, she helps produce and send newsletters and mailers, manages social media posts and more.

“Some people think about religious life and only what you are going to give up,” she said. “But no, the Lord will use everything that He’s given you,” she said.

When she was working as a pharmacist, Sister André Marie said she filled medical prescriptions but came to know that “God is the Divine Physician who heals not only physical ailments, but more importantly, spiritual ailments.”

“Now, as a nun, the orders I fill are prayer requests from the faithful,” she said.

For anyone discerning their next steps in life, large or small, Sister André Marie suggests the sacred silence of adoration and praying the rosary.

“Try holding the rosary instead of your phone,” she said.

Christina Gray is the lead writer for Catholic San Francisco.